Various online postage vendors, including Endicia™ Internet Postage, generally enable Internet users to purchase United States postage and apply individual postage indicia to a wide spectrum of envelopes and labels using standard computer printers. These systems tend to be based on the concept of Information Based Indicia (“IBI”), which typically include information to uniquely identify a particular postage indicium. In particular, several years ago the United States Postal Service (USPS) began to investigate the feasibility of computer-based postage and eventually published requirements associated with Information Based Indicia in a document entitled “Information Based Indicium Program (IBIP)—Performance Criteria For Information-Based Indicia and Security Architecture for Open IBI Postage Evidencing Systems (PCIBI-O),” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Following the USPS publishing the requirements associated with Information Based Indicia, various different architectures to support computer-based postage have evolved.
In particular, one computer-based postage architecture that has evolved to support computer-based postage relates to distributed postage indicia generation systems (e.g., as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/748,823, entitled “System and Method for Purchase and Application of Postage Using Personal Computer,” filed Aug. 22, 1991, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562 on Jun. 7, 1994, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety). In the distributed postage indicia architecture, a customer will typically purchase postage from the USPS or a postal vendor in lump sums that typically range from fifty to several thousand dollars, and the customer then downloads the postage to a Postal Security Device (PSD), which may alternatively be referred to herein as a postage meter, at the customer's location. The lump sum amount associated with the purchased postage will then be added to any balance remaining in the postage meter and the customer can then draw from the balance in the postage meter to produce postage indicia that can be printed and affixed to mail pieces. In response to the customer individually creating and metering the postage indicia to be affixed to the mail pieces, the balance in the postage meter will then be decremented according to the transaction amount associated with the postage indicia (e.g., the first class stamp rate, which currently stands at forty-four cents). Another architecture that has evolved to support computer-based postage relates to centralized postage indicia generation systems (e.g., as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/820,861, entitled “System and Method for Dispensing Postage Based on Telephonic or Web Milli-Transactions,” filed Mar. 20, 1997, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,005,945 on Dec. 21, 1999, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety). In this architecture, the USPS or postal vendor securely maintains an account associated with the customer in a postage-issuing computer system, wherein the customer then contacts the postage-issuing computer system to purchase and create the postage (or IBI) to print and affix to mail pieces.
For example, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary front view associated with a mail piece 100 having an information-based postage indicia printed or otherwise affixed thereto, wherein the mail piece 100 shown in FIG. 1 may be appropriately created and printed in either the distributed architecture or the centralized architecture described above. In particular, the mail piece 100 generally comprises an envelope 102 with various items printed thereon, including a postage indicium 104, which in layperson terms may alternatively be referred to simply as a “stamp.” The postage indicium 104, which a computer printer may generally print on the mail piece 100 in an upper right hand corner of the envelope 102, may generally comprise a barcode 106 that contains data relating to the mail piece 100 and the account holder in addition to human-readable information 108 (e.g., amount, service class, account number, etc.). Further, Facing Identification Marks (FIM) 110 that the USPS uses to initially sort the mail piece 100 may be located above and to the left of the postage indicium 104, and a return address 112 and destination address 114 may be printed on the envelope 102. A POSTNET™ barcode 116 may be located beneath the destination address 114 to encode a destination ZIP code or other delivery information that the USPS references to assist in directing mail.
More recently, computer-based postage architectures have increased the convenience associated with managing postage, especially for high-volume shippers that send large amounts of mail through the USPS and other postal services. Correlatively, industries with high shipping volumes such as the electronic commerce industry have contributed to substantial growth in the popularity associated with services that online postage vendors provide to efficiently and cost-effectively support high volumes of shipping transactions. For example, online postage vendors enable shippers to purchase and print virtually unlimited quantities of postage indicia and shipping labels on immediate request, which allows high-volume shippers to rapidly fulfill product orders without having to purchase often-expensive postage metering hardware. However, one problem that has arisen in computer-based postage architectures relates to securely managing discount rates that the USPS or other postal services negotiate with certain high-volume shippers. In particular, like many other businesses, the USPS offers programs to negotiate discounted contract rates, with high-volume customers. For example, these programs include Negotiated Service Agreements that stipulate custom pricing, rates, and classifications negotiated between the USPS and certain customers and Global Expedited Package Services (GEPS) agreements that similarly stipulate custom terms and conditions negotiated between the USPS and certain Express Mail International and Priority Mail International customers. These Negotiated Service Agreements and GEPS agreements tend to be extremely confidential in nature because disclosure to private shipping companies or other USPS competitors could materially harm USPS business and the negotiations typically require the customers to disclose substantial information about their internal operations, among other things.
For example, a customer seeking to enter into a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) with the USPS must initially submit a written proposal that includes appropriate supporting documentation, reasons for requesting the NSA, and information addressing applicable candidate features and general NSA requirements. Moreover, before the USPS will even consider entering into any substantive discussions relating to the proposal, the requesting customer must sign a nondisclosure agreement. Further detail describing the requirements, procedures, and conditions associated with Negotiated Service Agreements may be found in the USPS Domestic Mail Manual—Chapter G911, entitled “General Requirements for NSAs,” the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. Once the USPS and the requesting customer have agreed upon the custom rates to be stipulated in the NSA, the USPS then disseminates the custom rates to postage vendors or other postage service providers that then implement the negotiated rates. Historically, this dissemination process has involved the USPS either mailing the postage service provider an electronic media with the negotiated rates or sending the postage service provider an electronic mail message with the negotiated rates. However, the former transmission process tends to be vulnerable to physical attack or interception, while the latter transmission process tends to be vulnerable to electronic attack or interception. Moreover, rendering the negotiated rates to an electronic form tends to require potentially expensive manual labor and potentially error-prone human involvement at both the USPS and the postage service provider's locations.
Accordingly, the existing techniques that are typically used to disseminate postal rate information tend to fall short in suitably preventing security breaches relating to confidentially negotiated postal rates. Furthermore, because the existing processes used to disseminate postal rate information tend to be insecure, expensive, and susceptible to human error, better techniques to disseminate, update, and otherwise manage postal rates would provide substantial benefits to any mailers that enlist online postage vendors to purchase postage. However, existing systems typically lack adequate mechanisms to ensure that mailers are using the most current postal rate information, which could results in mailers having their shipments delayed or returned if the postage affixed thereto does not reflect the current postal rates, online postage vendors losing revenue due to customer dissatisfaction, and administrative hassles throughout the shipping chain, among other consequences.